| TAUT DRAMA IS WORTH THE `WATCH' BYLINE: Kevin D. Thompson Third Watch: 10-11 p.m. Mondays, WPTV-Channel 5, WTVJ-Channel 6 . . . and the winner for TV's "Most Underrated Drama" goes to a Third Watch. In a season loaded with such buzz-heavy freshman dramas as The West Wing, Once and Again and Judging Amy, Third Watch got the shabby Rodney Dangerfield treatment. It didn't help that NBC originally scheduled this action-packed series about a team of dedicated cops, paramedics and firefighters at 8 p.m. Sundays. No one, it seemed, was ready to stomach such gripping stories as women giving birth on the subway and fatal car accidents while they were either eating their mashed potatoes or putting their little ones to sleep. Wisely, NBC moved the show to a more appropriate time slot - 10 p.m. Mondays. While never a Top 20 hit, Third Watch finished the season averaging 11.2 million viewers each week. That was more than Third Watch's chief rival, Once and Again, which averaged 10.9 million viewers. I admit I wasn't initially hooked on Third Watch. The fast-paced pilot was one of the most exhausting I'd ever seen. Every medical and cop emergency clichE imaginable (Drunks duking it out on the streets! A medic shot in a dark hallway! A woman tosses her baby out of the window during a raging building fire!) were thrown in. Third Watch never slowed down enough for me to get to know the characters. But when the series finally moved at a more leisurely pace, not only did I get to know these well-drawn characters, I learned to care about them as well. While Once and Again and The West Wing have terrific ensemble casts, so does Third Watch. There's Doc (Michael Beach), the world-weary paramedic bumping heads with Carlos (Anthony Ruivivar), his cocky partner. Loose-cannon Bosco (Jason Wiles) is always a treat to watch. (The cocksure cop can test your nerves at times, though.) Officer Yokas (Molly Price), Bosco' s long-suffering partner, not only looks like a real take-charge cop, but also handles heartfelt scenes with her alcoholic husband with dignity. My favorite characters, however, are Sully (Skipp Sudduth), a veteran cop who believes his job is to "solve problems," and Ty (Coby Bell), a wide-eyed rookie who does everything by the book. In fact, one of the show's standout episodes was when Ty accidentally shot an innocent man he thought was about to shoot his partner. But those in-your-face stories are always balanced with well-written personal struggles. For example, Doc worrying about his sick, suicidal father (Ossie Davis); Bosco falling in love; and the sultry Kim (Kim Raver) torn between Bobby (Bobby Cannavale), her hunky paramedic partner, and Jimmy (Eddie Cibrian), her even hunkier ex-husband. Third Watch was created by John Wells, ER's executive producer. And this stellar drama is everything ER used to be: compelling and wonderfully addictive. |